The formula to height

Parallel to the leading edge of the rudder surely? You definitely don't want the leading edge raked forward of vertical, that gives a very light rudder but little feel. 

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 17 Oct 18 at 9:26pm

Originally posted by ClubRacer correct me if I'm wrong here but my belief was Jib luff tension (not rig tension) - would kill height by messing with the entry to the sail but open the leech of the jib. This when windy would help the slot and balance of the boat when the kicker moves the COE aft This is incorrect. Tightening the Jib luff will do a few things though. 1) tighten the luff and it moves the draft right forward, this can give you a bigger 'groove' to steer in when windy. If you have a loose luff the entry to the jib is much finer and you will be able to get closer to the wind.  2)Tighter luff will also close the leech more as it stretches the jib upwards and pulls the leech tight.  Jib Leech tension (non boat specific, for example if you had a meter long jib car track you could go from a really tight foot to and next to no leech tension to tight leech no foot)- This is the one I'm struggling with, leech tension helps with the ability to point higher. But on the jib the leech has a second function to accelerate wind over the back side of the main, so would a tight leech disrupt this flow and kill your height more than you've gained? Generally you will want to match the leech shape of the jib to that of the main and have the slot profile matching. If you have it set like this you will be good for most of the beat and get the hull and foils working in tandem, however there are situations where you would sacrifice speed for height over a very small period of time - say pinching for a mark  for 3-4 boatlengths where you may benefit from pinching as opposed to two tacks. Mast rake- this opens the leeches of the main and jib and moves the COE back. All i can see is this is a massive height killer, what is the purpose of raking the mast back as it gets windier? Depowers the boat and makes it easier to sail. In big wind, you often struggle to get the bow down and go fast as by being overpowered it forces pinching to lose power and you point high, but slide sideways as the foils are not working efficiently.  Kicker, Moves the COE back but holds a tight leech when you need to sheet out, surely this is a big height killer too Actually no. The kicker holds the leech firm and if you eased the main without it on, then your boom would rise and your leech would open. This would spill power and the height.  With mainsail shape you want return on your leech when trying to sail in a high mode and point well. You need to be careful though. Too much kicker means mast bend and a flatter sail, which wont help pointing either.  Downhaul, Moves the COE Foward in exchange for messing with the entry to the sail. Also opens the leech at the top.  Yes, only want this when depowering. Often the last control to be pulled on.  So for maximum pointing ability you want; up right rig so neutral helm If you have a bit of weather helm it will mean that you can feel the pulling on the rudder and sail the boat flat but still have some feeling on the rudder. Often people set the boat up with no helm, but then heel the boat to get feel - so many things wrong with that!!  jib on hard with tight foot and near tight leech Would make a flat jib - might be good for flat water if you have lots of power, but if you are struggling for power you will need a bit of depth in the jib to drive the boat. If the leech is too tight, then it will backwind the main and close the slot - def not ideal!  jib luff tension just taking the slack so as to clean the entry to the sail up Spot on No kicker but mainsheet tension on hard but not so hard it hooks the top leech Depends on conditions. If lighter wind and you do not have to ease main to depower then spot on.  When easing main to depower - start to kicker No downhaul- possibly to take the creases out the sail out and tidy the entry? Spot on - even some creases are fine

On this one most sailors will have their own idea on how to get that extra height.
Here's mine-95% of what has beeen said alreday I would agree can be used to give you better pointing but ther is one thing that has not been mentioned- sail depth.
It is simple -for lots of reasons flat sails will point higher than full sails. Why do you see so many sails with different fullnesses around if flat sails are so good? Its because they are awful to sail with. They have no feel, no acceleration, power, and are completely gutless. The thing is that if you sail with them a lot you learn to manage these "problems" so they are not too much of an issue as you are pointing higher than the rest and you can rely on this as your "get out of jail card " on the racecourse. Bethwaite knew about this -have a look at his 29er sails compared to other similar dinghies-not much shape there at all!

There's an old saying, where the head goes the body follows and until I once followed a really good lass in a Europe up a beat and then realised that there is no difference between the way I sail a board and the correct way to sail a dinghy, I didn't think it applied.
But whoever back there said about feel, that's the answer and even for someone like me who lives by feel, on sail craft, no tel tales, no little flag thing on top of the mast, it take a while to bed into a boat they are so much deader by comparison to real sailing on boards.

But having said that, twist the upper half of your body and look upwind at the same time as loosening the grip on the wiggle thing and let the boat 'hunt' for you, works wonders. Providing of course you have a well set up boat that isn't all weather helm like my little sailing joy the Solution. The Alto was equally good as I imagine would be a 505, and surprisingly if you could stop it rocking and rolling that RS200 was nicely balanced and not bad at all upwind. Now my little Mini sprint will point like a demon - and then slip sideways because it has a crap centreboard, so you have to dig the rail of the boat in a bit to try and stop that. Neither did I rate the Blaze in light weather, always thought it was under foiled,now a Phantom.. just sit there and enjoy your pies, it does all the work. Moral of the tale, they are all different but You have to learn first so you can tell the difference and that's taken me the best part of ten years.. And now I've got a boat which if you point it you die (Farr 3.7)so you have to foot it off, sail under the damned Lasers, let some speed build then the foils do the work and if there's not enough wind to get on the wire - sail something else.

Edited by iGRF - 29 Aug 18 at 4:31pm